Governor Cuomo and the amazing moment when we were able to change our minds

When allegations against Cuomo came to light, we could have given in to partisan, uncritical thinking. We could have said, ‘What about Trump?’ But we didn’t

APTOPIX Cuomo Sexual Harassment (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Here in New York, we are facing major whiplash from the speed and ferocity of the fall of Governor Cuomo. From the heights of popularity during his daily Covid updates to the lowly depths that we saw realized with his surprising resignation, this fall from grace was not only Shakespearean in nature, but fast.

Yet there is a lesson to be learned beyond “stop groping staffers already, you creepy white men in power”. And that lesson has the potential to create a major shift in the cultural That is that whole “critical thinking” thing that we were once coached to develop but have collectively lost in the soup of partisan infighting over the last several years.

In the aftermath of sexual misconduct allegations, we saw refreshingly little entrenched defensiveness (beyond the Governor’s own staff). Immediately after New York’s Attorney General Letitia James released the findings of the in-depth investigation that included accusations from eleven different female staffers and government employees (both current and former) and testimony from hundreds of witnesses (including Cuomo’s own), elected officials from both sides of ballot called for the Governor to step down. President Joe Biden, a longtime Cuomo friend and supporter, kicked off an avalanche of Democrats disavowing Cuomo and calling for his resignation, in varying degrees of harshness.

Of course, through a jaded lens, we could say that this was a case of Democrats eating their own or a last-ditch effort to save their own reputations. And surely, that is part of it.

But there is another part, a vital one that I’ve watched play out on social media. It’s not that long after the ugly election of 2020 saw lines drawn that no fact, figure or scholarly article could change. And while there were the gleeful posts from those who have long detested the Governor — or those who lost their support for him in the early days of his battle with public education, or simply those who have no love lost for any Democrat — there was another, more important response from others. Many were able to say: “He did a lot of good things. But he crossed a line and needs to go.” No one is above the law, said others. Even — and especially — our leaders.

This is progress for a post-Trump nation. What we saw was new information entering the ether, being verified and digested. New information begat new opinions. Those opinions may have threatened our worldview (or state-view). Quite simply, if before we had seen Cuomo as a comfort, as a strong leader in a time of chaos and uncertainty, a calm port in a storm (he actually had a terrific record of leadership through some of New York’s most historic and damaging storms), we had to reconcile this with the knowledge that so many witnesses had come forward with credible stories of sexual misconduct.

That misconduct had its roots in Cuomo’s unchallenged power in one of the most powerful states in the nation and was consistent with how ruthless we had seen him behave throughout his ten-year run as the chief executive. It rang true.

And instead of, “What about Trump?” or calling in a comparative stooge to dilute the allegations or dismiss the severity of them or downplay the significance of losing a key Democrat, people in New York processed what it would mean to excuse him and found they could not. Views were threatened, questioned and miraculously changed.

In a case as cut-and-dried as this one, this may not mean much. But if the left can choose what’s right, it sets a precedent. Morality above party. Ethics. Truth. Justice. It was a rare moment in these modern times of hyper-partisanship and performative politics. And it was one that gave me hope. As we say in New York: Excelsior. Ever upward.